AuthorTopic: other distros default designs (Read 44244 times)

hanimal

The abundance of window managers was one of the reasons that I chose VL over other distros such as Xubuntu... Being able to completely change the look and feel of my computer, instantly, exemplified the VL 5.1 motto "when choice matters", which resonated with me.

I purchased the Vector Linux 5.1 Deluxe CD because it delivered lots of options for my low-performance computer that Xubuntu, nor any other distro, could match.

The inclusion of several default window managers made VL 5.1 unique for me. Did other people feel the same way? Or am I insane?

Of course, the many window managers will still be implemented on my personal machine; I just thought it was a refreshing default feature to have everything there for a new user.

I agree with you hannimal. Enlightenment, kde, xfce, icewm, fluxbox. These things are what hooked me in at first. Then I tried to replace VL soho with my mepis again, and ubuntu, but the speed of the system was too low.

The first thing that really made me say, VL Soho for me was the speed and responsiveness of kde on my 128MB RAM laptop. This looked beautiful and multimedia rendered awesomely than any other distro ever tested on it.

My first impression was, WOW. I have never seen fluxbox look so great , themeable and customizable on any other distro. I was sold.

The main reason, I ventured away from some time was that my VL CD was given to a friend, and my older PC malfunctioned due to heavy age, and CPU getting damaged...

I am still distro hopping until Vector Soho 6 comes out.

Right now, Zenwalk is the new slack-based distro trying to do and push the envelope on what VL has been doing.

The main thing making me use Zenwalk 3.0 over Vector dynamite is mainly, the XFCE implementation after installation. Zenwalk's XFCE looks slightly better to me than the VL dynamite default desktoip background.

I know it is still in dynamite stage. Also, the guys there have started to use gslapt like VL. Here I see VL as the innovator. I look forward to what they launch in VL 6 Soho.

sorry for the long delay. Not really. But it makes a big impression. I could send you a snapshot of my default Zenwalk 3 versus Vector dynamite . I am glad it is just dynamite. Vector Soho was very polished compared to many other distros including its slack parent. Since the bar was raised so high, I am judging others including future releases on that.

It is also how easy it is for me to convince others to use it as they would be so drawn by the look and speed and want to have the same OS on their machine.

Zenwalk like VL has been making huge strides. Although slack-based, on their distro, you can do upgrade-all without breakage.

And now they have adopted VL's gslapt-gui. They are learning from VL and adding more innovations to their already existent designs.

In the past I was afraid to upgrade from slack-current, because I did not want to lose the VL customizations and looks. This alone is evident of the impact of look n feel to a distro.

---snip---Zenwalk like VL has been making huge strides. Although slack-based, on their distro, you can do upgrade-all without breakage.

We should be at that point soon with VL 5.8. It's just a matter of making sure the packages repo is completely populated before we invite people to test --dist-upgrade on a spare partition. You don't want to risk doing it on your main working partition.

---snip---Zenwalk like VL has been making huge strides. Although slack-based, on their distro, you can do upgrade-all without breakage.

We should be at that point soon with VL 5.8. It's just a matter of making sure the packages repo is completely populated before we invite people to test --dist-upgrade on a spare partition. You don't want to risk doing it on your main working partition.

I would be willing to risk or compromise my PC for that purpose. I have my important data on a different partition and have a spare drive for doing just this.

Tell me when and I would be ready to do it and see how borked my system is. I guess I have to experiment with upgrading after installing VL packages only, and also do upgrade-all with added packages from linuxpackages, etc..

All those wallpapers mentioned in the original post (and the ones not mentioned) are just variations of the same old, same old, easy on the eye ... Goblin linux has a different look, if one is into gothica.If you want to see a really impressive first impression try out Berry Linux. Now that is some boot splash; and the desktop, too; perhaps a bit on the feminine side.

Personally, what really impresses me is when Knoppix recognizes and drives all my hardware !______On the direction of Vector :It is too bad that Vector will only come with xfce. I wish for an Icewm only version/setup. I think the only thing I would like from xfce into icewm is that applet where we can change the desktop settingsWhy has everything got to be jammed into the first iso? Why can't there be an iso for the OS and one for the packages. Vector 5.1 standard found a good ballance (if only, Firefox could be taken out of it), why ruin it ? Isn't Xubuntu way ahead in that direction ? Wolvix is already out with a 250mb Xfce distro.

_____________________________>>> "yeah, but the beattles album is something we buy to listen,and not to look at."True enough, but do you remember how many hours we spent looking at those covers; (how many photos we purchased and stared at)

It is too bad that Vector will only come with xfce. I wish for an Icewm only version/setup. I think the only thing I would like from xfce into icewm is that applet where we can change the desktop settings

I don't think those settings will work for IceWM. XFCE was chosen because it's a complete desktop that's relatively lightweight. If you wish IceWM I'm afraid you'll have to compile and install it yourself.

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Why has everything got to be jammed into the first iso? Why can't there be an iso for the OS and one for the packages.

Because it fits easily. One of the goals of VL is to keep it a one cd distro.

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Vector 5.1 standard found a good ballance (if only, Firefox could be taken out of it), why ruin it ? Isn't Xubuntu way ahead in that direction ? Wolvix is already out with a 250mb Xfce distro.

I for one can't stand the way Ubuntu (and other debian based ditro's) works. Wolvix cub doesn't come close to the packages VL STD has to offer.. hunter (which is much bigger) seems comparable.

It seems to me you want VL to be smaller. You can remove the stuff you don't want with slapt-get / gslapt or removepkg.

>>>"It seems to me you want VL to be smaller. You can remove the stuff you don't want with slapt-get / gslapt or removepkg."

I like Vector the way it is (5.1 std 300mb). It could keep my machine going the next ten years. The thing I would uninstall is Firefox, and the thing I added to it was GnomeBaker (which required all them gnome pkgs). So I would like a 300mb Vector 5.8 when it comes out (with support for my SiS761 video).

My beef with Ubuntu and the major distros is that they are bloated beyond Bill Gates' belief; and they developed this Microsoft attitude of taking over my machine and telling me what I should and should not do and use. Ubuntu, for instance, never ask me if I want Office or not, it just puts it there, but when I want to install something it asks me if I have über permission to engage in such heretical activity.

I like Vector the way it is (5.1 std 300mb).--------------snip----------------I would like a 300mb Vector 5.8 when it comes out (with support for my SiS761 video).

Actually, VL 5.1 STD is closer to 400 MB (399392 KB). It's true that VL 5.8 STD is going to be quite a bit bigger than that (RC2 is now 540750 KB). However, I'm not sure to how much you could trim it down. As for the video card, that's probably something kernel related, I can't predict if it'll work..

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when I want to install something it asks me if I have über permission to engage in such heretical activity.

Unless I'm mistaking, you're talking about supplying a root password when you want to do system critical stuff? That is quite normal, it's a direct result of Unix's design philosophy. You could ofcourse log in as root and you'll never be bothered with it (which you probably can't in Ubuntu, AFAIK they 'removed' root and use sudo for everything), but it's generally not recommended.

Oh well, I guess we should all use what we like best. I for one love the 5.8 series and think it's a great leap forward.